Different societies are arranged in different ways. In a tribal society, there is very low trust between members of competing tribes. Such societies tend to be dominated by the Honor-Shame ethic where members are protected from the consequences of their transgressions as long as they do not bring shame upon the community. Exceptions occur but in general there is no expectation that members of a competing tribe will behave honorably with each other.
In America, we tend to have a Guilt based culture, a gift bequeathed to us from our Judeo-Christian ancestors. We assume a higher level of honesty and trust, until proven otherwise. We believe in an admittedly idealized fantasy of equal treatment under the law, even as we recognize that there exist significant disparities. In America, even the lowliest person has the right to legal representation and a trial under the rubric of blind justice. The erosion of the ideal of impartial justice is a serious threat to social comity.
Don Quixote, guest blogging for Bookworm, is concerned about how much stress our system can take when the common assumption of trust erodes:
Truth in the courtroom and elsewhere
I cannot count for you the number of clients and other witnesses I’ve had ask me “What should I say?” Not as in “What should I say to present my true story in the best light possible?” but as in “What should I say, true or not, that increases the likelihood that I (or the person I’m testifying for) will win at trial?” It is distressing to see the disappointment on their faces when I suggest that they might consider telling the truth.
So I suppose I’m asking just how important the Bookwormroom readers think the truth is these days. Does anyone tell the truth any more? Does it even matter, if everyone assumes everyone else is lying anyway? How can our society, much less our courtrooms, function if people will say anything to get what they want?
This resonated with another post this morning from Armed Liberal:
I spent five hours with him once; another scared parent watching his son prepare to go to war. We talked, controlling our feelings, reassuring each other and together my wife, as the men who we saw as boys did what they needed to do. I took some pictures, he snapped one on his cell phone. And they were gone, and we went to our hotels and homes and on with our lives.
And then a line of text on my screen. In my alerts. I've got a dozen of them, alerting me to anything on the web that might be about my son, and my phone shakes or my email box slowly fills up with news, and to be honest not much of it's been good. And then it was very bad as I saw a name that I recognized, a name on a tape on the chest of a young man who wasn't my son but who my son had talked about when we spoke on the satphone.
I am sure I am more sensitive to Armed Liberal's post because my Sons have chosen to defend what this country stands for. Last night, Reed posted a poignant comment during a rather long post:
One time during my training, I was out at the coffee shop during break and chatting with my friends. I was joking and talking about my "lessons" learned in the Navy. Mainly, that their core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment were discouraged because you get penalized for being honorable, courageous, and committed. They'll tell you to do the right thing, and then the right thing will totally fuck you over. I was talking about this at the coffee shop and I jokingly said something to the effect of, "The Navy has taught me that when you see something wrong happening, close your eyes, leave, pretend you never saw anything, and never tell anybody." Standing a few feet from me was a little asian woman in civilian clothes who looked pretty pissed and asked if that was really what I thought. I later found out she was a Marine Captain. What does this story have to do with anything? Hero Postmaster who tried to stop armed robbers, getting injured in the process, is being fined thousands of pounds. It's like life is emulating The Incredibles, where doing the right thing gets you punished. I guess it makes guys like me who do the right thing all the more impressive, but one can't help feeling like a chump sometimes.
If you have the time, I am sure a word of encouragement from the rest of us chumps would be welcomed by the Viking.
It seems sometimes that our culture is determined to make honor, courage, and commitment into discredited concepts, unworthy of the investment by smart, young people. We have come to expect venality from our politicians; is anyone surprised that Charlie Rangel, as one of a growing population of examples, is a pig and shows no shame?
Perhaps the most telling comment concerning our eroding standards comes inadvertently from the New York Times this morning; consider this a meta-communication about morality:
Expert on Morality Is on Leave After Research Inquiry
Marc Hauser, a Harvard academic who gained prominence with the publication of a book on the origin of morality, has gone on leave after an investigation by the university into problems with his research.
Dr. Hauser, whose field is the comparison of human and animal minds, is the author of “Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong.”
A Harvard press officer, Jeff Neal, at first refused to confirm that Dr. Hauser was on leave or that Harvard had conducted any investigation. But a message on Dr. Hauser’s laboratory phone says he will be on leave until the fall of 2011, and at least two scientific journals are acknowledging problems in Dr. Hauser’s articles that were brought to light by an internal Harvard inquiry.
The journal Cognition published an article by Dr. Hauser and others in 2002 saying that tamarin monkeys could learn certain rules much as human infants do. The journal is about to run a retraction saying that an internal examination by Harvard “found that the data do not support the reported findings.”
“We therefore are retracting this article,” it continues. “MH accepts responsibility for the error.” The initials M.H. refer to Dr. Hauser.
Cheating has always gone on yet it seems that there has been a concerted effort in the last several years to mainstream cheating of all sorts. Those of us who play by the rules are increasingly made to feel like chumps. This is not a healthy development for our society's future..
I will leave you with two brief excerpts from one of the great treatises on good and evil:
Pip: Tell me, is there any hope? For Frodo, I mean; or at least mostly for Frodo.
Gandalf: There never was much hope. Just a fool’s hope, as I have been told.
Recall though, that it was a man, one who embodied all the viurtues that are routinely mocked these days, who responded otherwise:
Aragorn: There is always hope.
Pendulums do swing back.
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